Thursday, December 31, 2009

That's all Folks

We flew back to Australia today, so our 'Big Trip' has officially come to and end.

I'm sad and don't want it to end...

Sunday, December 20, 2009

South Island road trip

Where we stayed:
Akaroa - Chez la Mer Backpackers
Queenstown - Mercure Queenstown
Franz Josef - Rainforest Retreat
Christchurch - Chirstchurch Ibis



After a few days in Hamilton settling the kids in at my Mums place, Alain and I flew down south to Christchurch to embarked on an awesome 10 day road trip. After 9 months of having the kids with us 24/7 we were relishing the idea of some 'kid free' time and getting to do what we wanted, when we wanted.



Our first port of call was to Akaroa, the quaint little French influenced village situated on Banks Peninsula. It's a beautiful wee town and you can understand why French settlers chose to stay here, the bay is breathtaking, especially when the sun dances upon the water as it sets.



We were extremely lucky to also spot a couple of Hector dolphins frolicking in the water not too far from the shore, whilst we enjoyed our dinner at one of the many wonderful cafes in Akaroa. We had a wonderful 2 days here and we'd go back in a heartbeat given the chance.


From Akaroa we made out way down to Lake Tekapo (via a brief stop in Ashburton to pick up some thermals, lol). Nothing really prepares you for your first glimpse of the lake. You drive around a corner and then suddenly, wham... there is is. The most amazing body of water I think I've ever seen, the colour is kind of difficult to describe, it's just awesome! We spent about a hour or so at the lake taking pictures of the church and beautiful surrounding landscape, skimming stones and being goofballs before continuing on to Twizel.



We originally planned on staying in Twizel for the night, but upon our arrive we saw that there isn't a hell of a lot to do there and since we still had so many hours of daylight left, we decided to push on to Queenstown (a decision we are very pleased we made).


We both instantly fell in love with Queenstown. It is a beautiful wee town nestled in between some awesome mountains which reflect off the splendid lake which the town is built around. Yes, Queenstown is touristy, but it is still charming nonetheless. It is has great shopping and lots of wonderful restaurants and bars (which we frequented regularly, of course).



We filled our days in Queenstown with touristy stuff, like going up the skyline gondola and zooming back down the hill on the luge. We went for nature walks (up very very steep hills) and were rewarded with splendid views and we enjoyed leisurely lunches which included a few bevvies (think Montheiths, Speights & Macs and you get the idea of the type of lunches these were). We did a day trip out to Arrowtown and enjoyed wandering around the beautifully manicured town, and we even stopped in a a winery on the return trip to pick up some wine.


We also booked ourselves onto one of the many bus tours which take you down to Milford Sound. Luckily for us, we chose a really good company and we had an excellent tour. Our leader Bruce was a classic Kiwi bloke, full of great information and a few tall tales to boot. I'm glad we didn't drive ourselves down like we originally planned, as we (or should I say Alain) would have missed so much of the beautiful scenery. It's breathtaking and well worth the long journey.

From Queenstown we headed up to Fox and Franz Josef glaciers (via Wanaka and Haast Pass). This leg of our trip was definitely a highlight for us, the scenery is amazing... We were lucky enough to have a break in the weather, so we quickly paid a visit to Fox Glacier. Alain and I were the only ones there walking around in shorts and jandals (we did have jerseys on though, so it wasn't that bad) and I'm sure all the other tourist thought we were nuts. Seriously, who visits a glacier in jandals???



From Fox Glacier we quickly went and walked around Lake Matteson, unfortunately though, it had started to drizzle and was really overcast, so we were unable to get any good reflection photographs... Oh well, thems the breaks.

From Franz Josef, we headed to Greymouth, with the intention of visiting the Monteith's brewery. Unfortunately, the buggers wouldn't let us in, so we thought bugger it, lets got to Christchurch... We made the wonderful journey across Arthurs Pass, and stopped for a good old fashion pie in the township. We watched some of the local kea's attacking a few cars and counted ourselves lucky that they didn't go near our beast...


We didn't do a hell of a lot in Christchurch, truth be told. We went to the Saturday market at the racecourse, and we also spend a day at the beach in Sumner and that's about the extent of the excitement... We did however find a lovely little French restaurant called Le Croix Blanc down one of the alleyways, and we enjoyed a rather boozy and very expensive lunch there (is it still called lunch if you arrive a 1.00pm and don't leave until 5.00pm?).


We had an awesome 10 days down south, and I highly recommend a road trip down there to everyone. It was fab and it made me remember why I love my country so much. New Zealand... You rock!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Homeward bound

We decided a few weeks ago that we would cut our big trip slightly short and head back to Australia early, seeing as we now were going back to New Zealand for Christmas (thanks to some cheap airline tickets). So from Kuala Lumpur we caught another VIP bus which took us down to Singapore, just in time to catch our return flight to Australia. We didn't want to linger in Singapore as we've been here before and already done most of the sights already.

After a rather uneventful flight we were finally back on Australian soil. It was lovely being back at home. Dad and Lyn were there to greet us and it was wonderful to finally see some people that we knew after so long on the road. The kids were so excited to see their cousins too, it was wonderful.

After 10 days back in Australia just relaxing, recovering and a wee bit of travelling (we went up to Mooloolaba for a night), we jumped on board yet another plane and headed to New Zealand... To Nana.